[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

If you set a standard in a regulation one of two things will happen.

Here's the first scenario:
The standard is lower than what the industry would do on it's own. In this case, the standard was unnecessary, and cost the industry millions in extra money testing the trucks & engines to show the government that they met the standard.

Here's the second scenario:
The standard is higher than what the industry would do on it's own. In this case the government has forced to customer to pay for more FE than will pay for itself. For example, the customer will have to pay $15k more for a truck that gets 1% better FE (a 15+ year payback). Oh, and there's still the extra costs to the manufacturers for all the additional testing to prove they met the standards.

There is also a third scenario:
The standard is higher than what the industry is doing at the moment, but close to what it would probably be doing within 10 years. The new standard only brings in the improvements a few years early. As we all know, the car companies always keep a few ases up their sleeves for later use. All the new standards in the last 20 years for automobiles have increased FE without skyrocketing costs too much.

Originally Posted by p38fln

They aren't going to replace them next year because of high fuel costs - they're going to run them until they're paid for, and THEN replace them. To do otherwise is financial suicide. So what happens in the meantime? They burn more fuel. Skyrocketing fuel costs wind up doing nothing more than translating into higher costs for bread and milk at the grocery story, because the trucking company can't just throw out their $100,000 truck because the new one will save fuel - they woudln't be able to afford it.

And that's where aftermarket aero kits come in, not to mention sites like EcoModder

I'm not into large truck prices, but I'm willing to guess that the more efficient aero models are also more expensive than the 'traditionalist' models. This may be more than made up for within 3-5 years of operation, but maybe not all O/O's can count that high (with all due respect to those who can).

Originally Posted by Clev

One thing that should be explored is making the gross limits higher. I wonder how much fuel could be saved just by changing the maximum gross on US highways from 80,000 to 90,000 pounds.

Increasing gross weight could have an influence on safety and road maintainance. Allowing more bulk (but not necessarily weight) would also increase efficiency (as mentioned in this thread).